The Death of Gods - Secrets of the Jenkabala forest and Bulldozer

From the uber blackened heights of Jenkabala Palace to the dank dungeons of Castle Thrashstone, the evil thrones rise from the fiery devil pits to slay the quivering posers and enslave the pathetic weak. Once again, Metal Night reigns over your soul!
 


This week...........Bulldozer!!!! Bulldozer are a semi-obscure thrash/proto black metal band from Italy. Their sound was very influential on later black metal bands. Their first album, The Day of Wrath, is Italy's answer to Venom and Bathory. Not as over the top and tongue in cheek cheesy as Venom, and without the mysterious aura of Bathory, sound is rather derivative, but this album is saved by youthful enthusiasm, thrashy vigor, and a tight performance. The lyrics are misogynistic and creepy, not graphic like brutal death, but coming across as personal confessions. It's clear that these dudes watch a lot of Italian porn and giallo movies and that they are not very good at life.

 Chronicles of the North part 2.1 - Vacant Throne

The secret order of T’Chah Karnac was often mentioned in whispers in the northern lands. They were said to be the fearsome wizards who bound each of the royal bloodlines to a family of wyvern in order to prevent the ruling houses from warring with one another. Tales of their evil or heroism abound in the bard songs of northern Jenkabala, but their existence is often disputed, some being of the opinion that the Wyvern’s grasp of magic was already so great and the creatures themselves so wise that they must have existed long before the human bloodlines sprung fourth on Centon. Most believe that the creatures created humans for some obscure purpose and if they don’t worship them, they at least have respect for their powers. With this knowledge, you can imagine the surprise and disbelief when we, kidnapped from the forest floor by a reptilian ape, were guided to this pathway carved everywhere with the symbols of T’Chah Karnac. The path itself was cut deeply into the wood of the massive branch so that the sides rose up almost to our height. We 

 had been walking on an incline and the walls quickly closed above our heads. We were inside the tree. Above the corridor, the wood had been perforated with thin slats to provide light and as we went further into the pleasant smelling center of the sap-filled branch other passages shot off to either side, but everything was deserted. We explored the many chambers here, all roughly the same size and all containing nothing that would give any indication of the former occupants of this strange fortress. Up flights of rough stairs we walked, through massive chambers with catwalks and carven doors. Still, nothing, perhaps there were other Simian lizards lurking about somewhere. Perhaps this creature’s master had died and it still was carrying out orders remembered from long ago. We came to a gallery built with a long window on one side. The sun’s heat was very strong here, we were surely near the top of the tree. Suddenly, Bloodmace grabs my shoulder’ “Look it’s…a garden.” Indeed, I had not noticed but there was a cultivated garden filled with edible plants and flowers set into the floor of this room. From the shadows beyond, a figure emerges.

The second album, The Final Separation, is more of the same, but still enjoyable. The sound is clanky and  lo-fi, and there are a few more conventional speed metal trappings. I love their album covers. The singer puts himself on every cover, looking like some low rent Hammer horror villain mixed with Charles Manson, essentially making him then band's own mascot. It's comedy gold. And the same lyrical misanthropy persists.

 Chronicles of the North part 2.2 - The Warning

As the figure moves from the back of the room into the blazing light that beats down from the aperture carved in the wall closest to where Bloodmace and I stand, its hands trace shapes in the air. The cloak that conceals our host makes it impossible to discern anything about this mysterious treetop dweller. There is a great flapping of wings above and the unknown presence glides past us to gaze out the window.  Pulling back the hood, the stranger reveals himself to be a short-haired human with immaculately trimmed facial hair, who spoke with casual authority, “So, the sons of Bloodhammer. Your father came to me to tell me of the folly you have perpetrated below.” Out of the corner of my eye I can see Bloodmace’s evil eye on me. “I see he has given you the cloaks. Do you know how to use them?” Bloodmace and I give each other a puzzled look. Indignant, the master of the treetops turns, looks out the windows and raises his arms to the sky, “Why Bloodhammer?” As if in answer, the birds perched atop the titanic branch that contains this room take flight all at once with a goading cry that sounds like laughter. Whirling around, the mystic fixes us with an intense stare, “I am Chanthoth, last of the T’Chah Karnac. Your lot has never been easy but it’s about to get very much harder.” Waving his hand above the windowsill Chanthoth raises a strange glowing display out of the wood, makes another motion and we hear the ancient hymn, 

“From a haze came a rage of thunder 

Distant signs of darkness on the way 

Fading cries scream of pain and hunger

But in the night the light will guideyour way."

The sun is sinking quickly and the three of us stare wordlessly into the blood red sky, meditating on the battle to come.

The third album, IX, is where they step up their game and release their thrash masterpiece. This features good production, more speed, tighter performances, tighter songs, and killer riffery. This album equals anything in the German thrash pantheon. The lyrics are even more incoherent and demented. The awesome cover had made vocalist/mascot A.C. Wild into the god of this world, evil wizard incarnate. This was the clear winner of the night. Jjjjwild, man! Wild!

Words of the Elders

And so the adventure in the northlands begins. The seeds of intrigues past have grown in secret, taking on strange forms in the darkness and have become heavy with the fruit of rebellion. What secrets lay buried within this empty stronghold?  The very existence of the T’Chah Karnac would shake the very foundations of politics and history on this timepiece world. Strange workings on mountaintops and deep jungles have led Bloodmace and Demon Scourge from Jenkabala to Waylor and back, on a quest to confront the evil Lord Headron of Dantor. He has made the sacred palace of metal in the Jenkabala woods into a mall where posers and fascists frolic and cavort under the icy moon. Brothers and Sisters of metal, raise your fists to the air to give berserker strength to the lone thrashers who search unendingly for the truth of their legacy among the ancient trees of this weird forest and to their brethren to the south, who even now trudge through the kaleidoscopic sands of the Time Desert on their way to Castle Thrashstone and destiny!

Until next week,battalions of fear

Horns

Ketch-up Night Part Duex - Mosh Down Babylon

 

Once again, Demon Scourge and myself found ourselves on the vodka train to Hammersmith with Atomic Stief, we we really didn't have much time to bother writing the blog. So here is another catch up post; a reminisce through alcoholic haze of Metal Night's past. Demon Scourge takes some time out from his chronicle to review the last three albums, since I was way too drunk that night to even remember what they sounded like. 

Swedish Death Metal night
Dismember- Indecent and Obscene-This album is one of the classics of Swedish Death, if not one of the founding documents of the scene, then one of the quintessential. Brutal riffery, many twists and turns, but not without a bit of melody. Fucking classic. Winner

Amon Amarth - Versus the World - Workmanlike melodic death. Actually, the only thing about this band that is death metal are the vocals, otherwise, this is pretty traditional. Not to say that it doesn't have its moments. This band has a set formula, and when it works, it's crushing. When it doesn't, it's boring.

Hypocrisy - Abducted - Another Swede death classic; an expansive, rather experimental album, space rock meets death metal. They throw some clean but psychedelic vocals on some of the more subdued, experimental songs at the end of the album, finishing on a darkly trippy vibe. One of my favorites, but the Dismember album wins by one single charred ember.

 Mayhem Related Band Night

Mayhem-Wolf Lair Abyss-This Ep was the first release of new material by Mayhem after the famous stabbing that made the Norwegian black metal scene infamous around the world. The band is as dark and evil as ever, but sounding not so different than 1000 other black metal bands from the time. This is a band coasting on their reputation.

Merciless-The Awakening-The winner of the evening is this little blackened thrash ditty from Sweden. It's pretty uncomplicated but very unrelenting. It just kicks into high gear and blazes a trail of glory through the hinterlands. This album was the first release by Deathlike Silence Records, which was the label owned by Euronymous, and was very influential on the Scandinavian scene in general. Ok, no one in this band was ever actually in Mayhem, so maybe they are only spuriously related to that band, but blazing riffs and furious speed win the night!

Tormentor-The Seventh Day of Doom-Attila Csihar's first band is one of the most influential thrash bands to influence Mayhem. You can definitely hear the black metal riffs, but this is thrash, first and foremost, with lots of trad metal influence. It's just that the band was possessed by Satan, and listening to this demo will send you straight to hell. 

European Trad Metal Obscurities 
Aria - Meglomania - The first album by the long lived Russian metal stalwarts, Aria was most defiantly in the NWOBHM tradition, almost hard rock in parts. By 1985, when Meglomania came out, this kind of music was already being supplanted by the more extreme forms of metal  that were beginning to dominate tape decks everywhere (Slayer, Sodom, Bathory, Etc.) Everything you would expect is here, the galloping, maidenesque bass lines, harmonized twin guitars, crowd whoring sing-along choruses and of course the shitty Scorpions-style power ballad. They are, by all reports, revered in Russia and with good reason. These guys are pro, real pro. They play with conviction and though it’s easy to see this as an album that offers less to the average metal fan than their ’87 LP “Hero of Asphalt,” (I definitely prefer that one), This had to be the greatest Halloween gift ever to Russian Metalheads who never had a band to call their own.

Cobra-Warriors of the Dead-Again we encounter a band playing a more traditional style of metal in the mid eighties. Some of Warriors of the Dead is awesome, the title track, the cleverly named “Cobra” and the nuke-obsessed “China Syndrome” all display the band as an ass-kicking riff machine. The balance of this graveyard, however, is filled with stiffs that can barely open the coffin lid, much less go into battle and almost all of the songs have lyrics that fly like a ten pound brick. Vocalist Paul Edmonson doesn’t help the case with his Alice Cooper worship, but hell, you could do much worse. Defiantly a third-tier act, they still manage to eke out a few good neck snappers before the bonehead who wrote the lyrics drags the whole proceeding through the mud. I got some laughs out of their erotic jam, “Wildest Dreams” where Paul asserts that he will “make you feel”, again and again during the fadeout.

Axe Witch-Visions of the Past-Well, here’s our requisite Swedish band. Why the crap do the Swedes get all the good metal bands? Seriously though, even though this album has its flaws, it dominated the night (well what I can remember of it anyways.) As we have already seen, in the mid 80’s Maiden and Priest worship was the order of the day and Axe Witch oblige their audience with gusto, serving up riff after riff. Like the other albums we listened to these guys seem a little too eager to please, like they saw the success of the big acts of the day and were trying to ride the gravy train. This strategy worked out for Aria but not so much for Cobra and Axewitch. So even though Aria was more successful and Cobra was funnier, Axe Witch were winners simply for being harder than the competition.

Alcatrazz, UFO, and Hard Rock Heathens in Jenkabala

Alive, at last, and reveling in the masculine glory of traditional heavy metal, Demon Scourge and myself started feeling kind of....well.....gay. All that leather and phallic imagery with the swords and shit and not a chick in site; we were being asked if we hung out with Rob Halford. Ultra muscular men in ultra tight daisy dukes would approach us with unclear intentions. And frankly, I was getting tired of the wretched bath house stench of the Westside Palace. So, we decided to attract some chicks by puttin' on the hairspray, eyeliner, and spandex and jammin' on some lady friendly hard fuckin' rock! Rockin' with our cocks out! That's not gay at all!

Chronicles of the North Part 1.1 - Sunrise over Locus Mortis

The crackling discharge of electricity that accompanies a trip through a dimensional portal was barely over when I recognized where Bloodmace and I had been sent. The smell of sorga flowers in the Jenkabala forest is unmistakable.  My brother has already arrived and he is leaning against the trunk of a tremendous sourwood tree. “Hai! So it’s back to the northern forest we have been sent.” Quickly he strides over to the spot where I stand, hand on his 

 signature weapon. “There is much you have to answer for, Demon Scourge. You must explain yourself or we must finish this battle once and for all.” Bloodmace’s countenance was grave as he took up his fighting stance. With little time to choose, I hastened to explain. “It was in this very spot, if I’m not mistaken. This was our campsite the night Tolar came with his warning, the place where we were captured by the Wyverns. I know not if Tolar is on the side of Headron but the one who came to us in that form stayed within me until that fateful night at Castle Thrashstone. Just as we were about to open the portal, this terrible larva burst forth from its cocoon and took command of my body. Brother, there is no way to alter these events, but we must prevent another cataclysm from destroying Centon.” Bloodmace regards me sternly for a moment then extends his hand. As I grasp his arm in solidarity he says to me in a low menacing voice, “We will go on to complete our mission, but if you make a move towards me or any of the others I shall destroy you so you will never return to this realm again.”

First, we heard the early 80's most underrated and criminally ignored hard rock band, Alcatrazz. Their first album, No Parole From Rock 'n' Roll, was packaged and marketed as LA party metal in the vein of Motley Crue and Quiet Riot, but it is so much more. Featuring former Rainbow and Black Sabbath crooner Graham Bonnett, and Richie Blackmore disciple Yngwie Malmsteen, this is more of a slick 80's update of the former band and Deep Purple for heshers a few IQ points above the rest of the glam rockers. Which is probably why it flopped. Songcraft and mood takes precedent, shredder Yngwie seeming almost restrained, his massive chops perfectly complimenting skinny tie clad Bonnett's tasteful wail. They dominate the whole album, while the rest of the band churn away,  workmanlike and professional. Lyrics are the real surprise; intelligent, non-pretentious, with a slight air of 70's mysticism. I fucking love this album. So does Demon Scourge. So should you.

This concert vid contains most of the album, and also a Rainbow track or two.

Chronicles of the North Part 1.2 - Sign of the Jackal 
I was about to reply to Bloodmace’s warning when something moved in the distance. Without a word we both leap behind a huge root protruding from the soft ground near where we stand. After a moment of breathless silence I peer out across the forest floor but all I can see is a few leaves floating lazily down from the treetops high above. Bloodmace rises as well and we begin to slowly scan the wilderness for any sign of life. I turned to Bloodmace just in time to see a slender, grey thread descending from the ancient foliage above but as I open my mouth to cry out, a slimy tendril grasps me across the chest and we are both yanked upward, the ground falling away into a sea of empty space. As we approach the fragrant canopy, abundant with white sorga flowers, our travel slows dramatically and our captor comes into view.  At first its form seems to be simian, standing upright with a small head mounted on a large hairy body with feet that terminate in vicious claws. Sprouting from the sides of its body however are two sucker covered tentacles that flop menacingly as we are heaved onto the tremendous branch. The creature motions for us to follow as the wet organic rope around our sides disintegrates. When the strange hybrid reaches the trunk it reaches with a tentacle into an orifice on the side of its body and produces a foamy yellow goop witch it proceeds to shovel into a sharp toothed maw sunken into matted fur. With a strange noise our captor spits the viscous substance, now grey, onto a neighboring branch. Yanking the threads out of its mouth the creature attaches them to the branch we are standing on and points with rubbery appendage at the other side. Slowly, Bloodmace and I make our way across the chasm. We step on to the branch, steadying ourselves with the thick stems of the flowers witch dwarf us on every side.  The wooden pathway widens out enough for the two of us to walk side by side, now obviously a flat walkway. Strangely familiar symbols are carved into the polished surface. Bloodmace, pointing down breaks the silence, “Look at the path, do you think…” his voice trails off as we push aside the foliage ahead of us to reveal that the path now slopes into the interior of this arboreal catwalk. Carved into the entry are the mystic symbols of T’Chah Karnac. “Well,” I say to Bloodmace “I guess we know why we were sent here.”  

The next album we heard was UFO's 1977 release Light's Out. This is not a metal album, but hard rock with a few metal leaning songs that were highly influential on metal. This is also one of the few if not only album we've reviewed here that does not have an entry on Encyclopedia Metallum. This album was especially influential on the NWOBHM, and Iron Maiden in particular. Steve Harris counts the albums 7 minute closer 'Love To Love, as his favorite. It's easy to see its epic structure's influence on later Maiden behemoths, though the string section clearly dates it. This album is best known for AOR chugger 'To Hot To Handle' and 'Light's Out', the most balls out metal song on the album. Mostly, though, I can't really get too excited about this album. I don't dislike it, but the lighter, popper, bluesier songs make me crave more power cords and epicness(or at least some prog weirdness), which isn't the focus of the album. This is a classic hard rock album, but it ain't metal.

The third album is one that is very close to Demon Scourge's hell-scarred heart, Dokken's Back For The Attack. I have to admit, Dokken was never one of my favorite bands in the 80's, either for being not heavy enough, too poppy, too slick and later, not cheesy enough. But Demon's advocacy has deepened my appreciation of this band. Once again, it is pure song craft and George Lynch's tasty axe work that win the day. Once you get past the fact that this isn't going to be a screaming iron fest, you can enjoy this albums sometimes party hardy flavors. I'm never going to take Cryptopsy or Enslaved off my playlist in favor of Dokken, but when it the middle of the summer and you're cruisin' around trying to recapture your late 80's glory dayzzzzz, you could not do any better than to blast this album out your speakers.

Words of the Elders

The Jenkabala forest is filled with mystery. From the soft, moist floor to the verdant canopy of jade and amber, secrets are hidden. What dangers will Bloodmace and Demon Scourge face in this wilderness, and what will become of the rest of their party? Many miles south of this sanctuary lies the former Jenkabala Palace, which is now Jenkabala mall. It is there that Lord Headron holds court in the Hot Topic where the central listening chamber of Demon Scourge once stood.CURSE YOU Headron! The vengeance of Bloodmace and Demon Scourge needs blood! YOUR BLOOD HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You can hide in your fortress of consumer goods but it cannot deflect the heavy hammer of the righteous! 

Until next week, Doomlords of Armageddon  

Horns